


chignon du cou

by theprimrosepath



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Established Relationship, F/M, Fjord & Beauregard Lionett Friendship, Hair Braiding, Hair Brushing, POV Fjord (Critical Role), Romantic Gestures, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, peak romance is learning how to do your girlfriend's hair
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-08
Updated: 2021-02-08
Packaged: 2021-03-13 17:53:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,594
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29282535
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theprimrosepath/pseuds/theprimrosepath
Summary: Fjord enlists Beau and Caduceus into a plan: learning how to do hair.
Relationships: Fjord & Beauregard Lionett, Fjord/Jester Lavorre
Comments: 12
Kudos: 99





	chignon du cou

Fjord still feels ridiculously lucky to wake up in the morning and see Jester near him.

Not every morning. Sometimes they still sleep in their separate suites in Caleb's tower because both of them relish the rooms in which it's obvious that thoughtfulness and love was poured into every comfort—sometimes they both wanted that familiarity more than each other for a night.

But always, they greet each other with a kiss every morning. Gods, Fjord loves her so much.

It surprised him early on when they first began sleeping together more often than not and he found that Jester would often wake _him_ up getting out of bed. His mornings are usually early thanks to the workout routine he's fallen into with Beau, but every time they're both awake, Jester is still sitting at her vanity with pursed lips and hands full of hair when he leaves.

He remembers how her hair was short when they first met on the road out of Nicodranas. It feels like ages ago, and Jester's hair has absolutely grown out far longer as if to match. With longer hair, though, has come the attempts for more elaborate hairdos.

There's a now very familiar bitten-off growl of irritation one morning as Fjord is getting dressed. He looks over to her scowling at the vanity with a hairpin in her hand.

"Do you need any help, Jess?" he asks.

"No, it's fine." She sticks the pin between her teeth and continues, "Mama just always made this look easy."

"She _is_ the most famous courtesan on the Menagerie Coast."

"Yes she is," she sings, muffled, in response. "And her hair always looks amazing."

Fjord finishes dressing and stops beside Jester to give her a quick kiss on the cheek. "I think you look amazing whether your hair's done or not. This business always looks exhausting to me."

She plucks the pin from her lips with a wry smile. "All you do is tie yours up in a little bun or ponytail."

"Exactly, so much easier. Do you want help with that pin, at least?"

Jester hesitates in her awkward pose, one eye squinted almost shut as if it might help her see better. With a bit of a teasing lilt, she asks, "Do you actually know anything about doing a woman's hair, Fjord?"

"It can't be too hard."

When he takes the pin from Jester's hand, though, he pauses and brings it up to eye-level to squint at it. "Jester, this is a small stick."

She chuckles and raises her hand up toward him to wiggle her fingers at him. "Yeah, a small stick for my hair. Now give it back if you don't know what to do with it and go work out with Beau."

Fjord eyes the in-progress hair styling and the assortment of hairpins on the vanity as he returns the pin.

For the usual hour he spends with Beau in the morning, it's all normal idle chatter about whatever passes their minds in between bouts of quiet, semi-strained breathing. But the thought of Jester sitting at her vanity with all those hairpins rolls around in the back of Fjord's mind the entire time. He doesn't quite realize this fact until they're leaving the great hall, though.

Because he opens his mouth and asks, apropos of nothing, "Do you know anything about doing hair, Beau?"

She pauses mid-sentence on their speculation on why penguins can't fly. Says, "What?"

"Hair. Do you know anything about, like..." Fjord makes some random gestures above his head and immediately feels a little silly for doing so. "Doing it up nicely. Never mind, you probably don't."

One of Beau's eyebrows shoots up. "'Scuse me?"

Fjord begins to stammer but is relieved of an apology by an elbow to his arm that is probably going to bruise. "I'm fucking with you," she says. "I know I don't look like the type and I'm super proud of that. But yeah, I know a lot, actually. Grew up as the only daughter of a rich wine family, remember?"

"Right. I remember what your mother looked like the one time we visited."

"Pretty glamorous?"

"Yup."

Beau nods. "She came from money, too. Dad didn't. She taught me a _lot_ of polite society bullshit back when they still thought I'd be inheriting the business. Ha." She runs a hand through the shaved side of her head. "Never had this kind of cut until my rebellion phase."

"You had a full head of hair once?" Fjord asks, amused.

"Looked like a downright proper young woman," Beau replies with equal humor. They reach the center corridor and begin floating upward. "Why are you asking about hair, though? Plan on doing something with yours?"

Fjord gives a snort and says, "No. I asked because Jester spends a lot of time doing her hair most mornings and I have no idea what she's doing for any of it except when it looks like knot-tying or braiding. I never really knew a lot of women who needed their hair done before, and honestly... It looks like a huge pain, but she's always so intent on it that I want to help her."

"Aw, dork." He gets another elbow in his arm, thankfully gentler this time. "You want me to teach you some things, then?"

"If it wouldn't be a bother."

Beau levels a serious gaze on him as they land on the fifth floor of the tower. "Fjord, this is extremely adorable of you. I am one-hundred percent down to help you out."

"Help with what?"

The two of them jolt a little and turn as one to see Caduceus as he closes the door to his rooms behind him. He tilts his head curiously at them, staff loosely in hand and stray locks of his short hair falling into his eyes.

Oh— _shit_. Fjord glances at Beau, who's already raising a considering eyebrow at him.

He turns back to Caduceus and asks, "How much do you know about doing people's hair, Caduceus?"

"Oh, plenty," he replies. "My family is essentially each others' barbers and at least half of us have long hair at any one time. Plus, you know." He runs a hand through his hair, showing the shaved right side that still remains beneath his different part. "I take care of my own."

"Great," Fjord says. "How would you feel about teaching me?"

*** * ***

"Yasha, your hair looks so pretty!" Jester cries.

They're all gathered around the dinner table as the cats carry out plates of steaming food, and Yasha begins to blush red from across the way as Jester slaps her palms on the table. "Oh, thank you," she replies, touching the tips of her fingers to the pile of braids that sits on her head and glints with jade pieces. "I like it, too."

Jester beams at her. "Did you do it yourself?"

"No, um—" She gives a quick glance toward where Beau and Fjord are seated, and Fjord frantically shakes his head. "Well, Beau helped me with it. Sometimes it's really hard to do it by yourself, you know. Your arms get tired."

"Gosh, right?"

Then the conversation drifts as the pastries arrive and Jester begins delightedly piling them high on her plate. Fjord catches Caleb smiling out of the corner of his eyes as he gestures for one of the cats and whispers into its ear. Probably ordering more of those pastries, thank Melora. It would keep Jester from asking Yasha any more questions when the poor woman isn't very good at lying.

Beau discreetly prods him in the side, though. When he looks over, she grins and waggles her eyebrows.

Fjord grins back, feeling a warm and very satisfied buzz in his chest. Though at least a little bit of it is from all the cats around them, lack of physical form or fur aside. Fuck cats and fuck his allergies.

He feels better when he sees Caduceus give him a smile and a thumbs-up.

Eventually, _the_ morning comes.

Fjord is admittedly very anxious about his plan—anxious enough that his eyes snap open immediately, all possible grogginess vanishing like mist in the sun, when he feels Jester's side of the bed adjust to the removal of her weight.

He tries not to seem so awake. Both he and Jester are well-aware of the fact that he's far less of a natural early riser.

So he stretches across the bed, groans like he doesn't want to get up, and surreptitiously watches her disappear into the bathroom through half-lidded eyes.

By the time she comes back out, Fjord's ready.

When Jester sees him, she stops in place with a confused tilt of her head. "Fjord? What are you doing?"

Fjord gestures with her favorite hairbrush to the seat of the chair he's placed in front of him, its back toward him and he on Jester's usual cushioned bench by the vanity behind him. "Come sit down. I have a gift for you."

She smiles a little, bemused, and approaches. "A gift?"

"Of a sort."

Amused now but a little wary, Jester slowly takes her seat in the chair and regally arranges the skirt of her nightgown.

Fjord presses a brief kiss to the nape of her neck, tucks strands of her sleep-mussed hair around and away from the base of her horns, and says, "Don't worry, I think you'll like it."

The squeal of glee and arms thrown around his neck once he can finally turn her around to the mirror sets his heart aflame with joy.

**Author's Note:**

> i don't know much about doing hair, but i do love the romance of it and it's just _perfect_ for fjord and jester.
> 
> i'm 90% a widojest writer so don't look for the rest of my works if you're not into them! however, i adore fjord and jester with all my goddamn heart and sometimes i have spite in spades for shipping fandoms' opinions that i disagree with. (if you love fjord though, feel free to check out my fic _[An Answer](https://archiveofourown.org/works/28646055)_ , which is pure gen fjord&cad and a short fjord character study about faith.)
> 
> i hope you enjoyed <3


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